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Image copyrightEPA/ Yulia Skripal/FacebookImage caption Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are in a critical condition in hospital

International experts are due in the UK to assess the type of nerve agent used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

A team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will visit the military research base at Porton Down in Wiltshire.

Experts at the site say the agent is of a type first developed by the Russians.

President Putin said the idea of state involvement – before Sunday’s election and the World Cup – was “unimaginable”.

Speaking after winning a fourth term as leader, he insisted Russia had destroyed all of its chemical weapons, adding it was “nonsense” to implicate his government in the attack on 4 March.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had earlier accused Moscow of stockpiling the agent used in the attack.

What are Novichok nerve agents?

Russian spy: What we know so far

Mr Johnson is travelling to Brussels to seek further support for Britain’s stance, from both the European Union and Nato.

The delegation from the Netherlands-based OPCW, which polices the prohibition of chemical weapons, will also meet senior detectives.

They have been invited by the UK to independently verify the nerve agent used and will take at least two weeks to produce results.

Ventilation system theory

Sergei Skripal, 66 and Yulia Skripal, 33, remain critically ill in hospital. They were found slumped on a bench near a shopping centre in the centre of Salisbury, having visited a pub and a restaurant.

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption The experts from the OPCW will visit Porton Down

The Metropolitan Police are treating the attack as attempted murder.

They have renewed their appeal for sightings of Mr Skripal’s burgundy BMW 320D saloon car, registration HD09 WAO, in Salisbury on the morning of 4 March.

According to sources cited in a report on ABC News in the US, Mr Skripal and his daughter may have been exposed to the nerve agent through the vehicle’s ventilation system.

Police say they have recovered 762 exhibits and are trawling through about 4,000 hours of CCTV footage.

Officers said they were “making good progress in what is a painstaking investigation that is likely to be ongoing for weeks, if not months”.

Next steps

Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs last week that the substance used in the attack had been identified as belonging to a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok, developed by the Soviet Union.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Boris Johnson said: “We actually have evidence within the last 10 years that Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination, but has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok.”

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Police say their investigation will take “weeks, if not months”

On Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry said UK staff would be expelled from Moscow within a week, in response to Britain’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

It also said it would close the British Council in Russia, which promotes cultural ties between the nations, and the British Consulate in St Petersburg.

The prime minister has said the UK government would consider its next steps “in the coming days, alongside our allies and partners”.

Meanwhile, the shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti reiterated Labour’s position that the incident was either a “loss of control” by the Russian state or a “malevolent directed attack”.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said Labour had given a “constructive critique” in response to the incident which others “had misread”.

He told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “We support exactly what the prime minister said and we condemn Russia for this, condemn them.”

The student is whispering now: “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is being shot up.”

“It’s being shot up? Are you at the school?”

The caller whispers something.

“I can’t hear you,” says the responder. “Are you at the school?”

There’s a pause. Then the caller hangs up.

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Media captionFootage posted on social media captures the moment the gunman opened fire

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Media captionThese are some of the messages students sent their loved ones during the shooting

The day everything changed

That Valentine’s Day, the lives of 3,300 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School pupils in Parkland, Florida, changed forever.

The shooter killed 17 people. Others are still fighting for their lives in hospital.

It’s become an almost unremarkable event in modern America: This was already the sixth school shooting of 2018 in the US.

But this time was different. Because instead of just accepting it for part of daily life, this group of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds decided that guns were tearing apart communities and that too many innocent people were dying.

This is the story of how they started a political movement in just a month.

They have a clear message: “Never Again”.

Image copyrightGetty Images

The seed of the campaign was planted less than 24 hours after the attack.

Gathering in a local park with candles, students were embracing their friends, talking to the media or grieving quietly.

“That’s when we all held hands together and said ‘This is where there’s going to be change. This is where it’s going to be different’,” Jared, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, tells Newsbeat.

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Media captionFred Guttenberg said he couldn’t remember if he had told his daughter Jaime that he loved her

That was a Thursday. By the weekend, the Never Again movement was up and running.

It was amplified on social media with hashtags including #NeverAgain, #MarchForOurLives, #WhatIf and #IWillMarch.

But this time, it was much more than an online movement which politicians could ignore.

Tweeting “thoughts and prayers” wouldn’t be enough this time.

It was a real movement, with real people, in real life.

Image copyrightGetty Images

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Media captionStudent to lawmakers “Shame on you”

Calling ‘BS’ on gun culture

Never Again would culminate with a demonstration on Washington DC which the campaign was calling the March For Our Lives.

Its first major piece of media coverage came on the Saturday with an emotionally charged speech by Emma Gonzalez.

“[To] companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that all we are is self-involved and trend-obsessed, and they hush us into submission when our message doesn’t reach the ears of the nation: We are prepared to call BS,” she cried.

That speech seemed to change how the world’s media covered this latest shooting – instead of the killer being the main story, it became about the survivors who were fighting on behalf of their dead friends and teachers.

Dick’s Sporting Goods said it would no longer sell assault-style rifles – and Walmart raised the minimum age for anyone buying guns or ammunition to 21 years.

Image copyrightGetty/EPAImage caption Some of the main students from the Never Again movement (clockwise from top left): Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Corin, Sarah Chadwick, Alfonso Calderon, Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg

‘They weren’t the ones who heard the gunshots’

As the movement grew, its opponents became more enthusiastic in their opposition. Much of it came online.

The main figureheads of Never Again were accused of being “crisis actors”, put up by the anti-gun lobby to try to ban guns.

They were told that it was too soon, and that they were disrespecting their deceased friends and teachers by making this a political movement.

They were told to leave the serious stuff to the adults.

Florida State Representative Elizabeth Porter said: “Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says ‘No homework?'”

“We understand we’re just kids, but they can’t tell us that what we’re advocating is not right just because we’re too young.

“They weren’t the ones who heard the gunshots, they weren’t the ones who ran, they weren’t the ones who hid in closets, who hid behind desks, they weren’t the ones who were shot at, and they weren’t the ones who witnessed their peers die right in front of them. So they don’t have a say.”

Image copyrightGetty Images

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Media captionParkland 17: Empty desks a memorial to students killed

Political progress

The momentum rolled on.

On 6 March, less than three weeks after the shooting, Florida senators voted to raise the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 and require a three-day waiting period for most weapons.

Three days later it was signed off by the governor of Florida.

If you were in doubt that this was as a direct result of political action by the students in the Never Again movement, the bill is called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

Image copyrightJoe Raedle

A new normal

Just over a month on from the attack on their high school, and the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas are trying to get back to normal.

Russia’s EU ambassador has suggested a UK research laboratory could be the source of the nerve agent used in the attack on an ex-spy and his daughter.

Vladimir Chizhov told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show Russia had “nothing to do” with the poisoning in Salisbury of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

He said Russia did not stockpile the poison and that the Porton Down lab was only eight miles (12km) from the city.

The government dismissed his comments as “nonsense.”

Retired military intelligence officer Mr Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, remain critically ill in hospital after being found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on 4 March.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has told MPs that Porton Down – Britain’s military research base – identified the substance used on them as being part of a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok developed by the Soviet Union.

The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attack.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will come to the UK on Monday to test samples of the nerve agent.

Mr Johnson, speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, described Mr Chizhov’s claims as “satirical”, adding that it “is not the response of a country that really believes itself to be innocent”.

He said the UK had evidence that Russia, within the last 10 years, had been developing and stockpiling Novichok, as well as investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination.

Labour shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti reiterated Labour’s position that the incident was either a “loss of control” by the Russian state or a “malevolent directed attack”.

She told the BBC: “You’re not going to get co-operation from a state that’s deliberately targeted you but you might get co-operation even from a slightly embarrassed state if its lost control of its stock of chemical weapons.”

Image copyrightEPA/ Yulia Skripal/FacebookImage caption Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are in a critical condition in hospital

Mr Chizhov told the BBC that Mr Skripal could “rightly be referred to as a traitor” but “from the legal point of view the Russian state had nothing against him”.

Asked how the nerve agent came to be used in Salisbury, he said: “When you have a nerve agent or whatever, you check it against certain samples that you retain in your laboratories.

“And Porton Down, as we now all know, is the largest military facility in the United Kingdom that has been dealing with chemical weapons research.

“And it’s actually only eight miles from Salisbury.”

But pressed on whether he was suggesting Porton Down was “responsible” for the nerve agent in the attack, Mr Chizhov said: “I don’t know. I don’t have any evidence of anything having been used.”

He said a number of scientists who claim to be responsible for creating some nerve agents “have been whisked out of Russia and are currently residing in the United Kingdom” but no stockpiles of chemical weapons had left the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He added that there were “no stockpiles whatsoever” of nerve agents left in Russia.

Russia, he said, stopped producing chemical weapons in 1992 and destroyed all of its stockpiles last year.

The Foreign Office said there was “not an ounce of truth” in Mr Chizhov’s suggestion of a link to Porton Down.

A spokesperson said: “It’s just another futile attempt from the Russian state to divert the story away from the facts – that Russia has acted in flagrant breach of its international obligations.”

Russia ‘manipulation’

Mr Chizhov’s comments come after a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said the UK was one of the most likely sources of the nerve agent, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden or possibly the United States.

Maria Zakharova said a large number of ex-Soviet scientists had gone to live in the West, “taking with them the technologies that they were working on”.

Czech foreign minister Martin Stropnicky said the claims were “unsubstantiated” and “a classic way of manipulating information in the public space”, while Sweden also “forcefully” rejected the suggestion.

Chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who revealed the existence of Novichok in the 1990s and later defected to the United States, said he was convinced Russia created the substance used in the attack.

He told the BBC: “Russia is the country that invented it, has the experience, turned it into a weapon. This is the country that has fully mastered the cycle.”

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Media captionA look around Porton Down, Britain’s military research base in to chemical and biological attacks

On Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry said UK staff would be expelled from Moscow within a week, in response to Britain’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

It also said it would close the British Council in Russia, which promotes cultural ties between the nations, and the British Consulate in St Petersburg.

The UK foreign secretary will meet his EU counterparts and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for talks in Brussels on Monday.

Mr Stoltenberg said he expects Germany’s Angela Merkel and other leaders to reassess their response to Russia at the next Nato summit in July.

He told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag: “Salisbury follows, by all appearances, a pattern we’ve observed for some years – Russia is becoming more unpredictable and more aggressive.”

Theresa May said the UK government would consider its next steps “in the coming days, alongside our allies and partners”.

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Media captionTheresa May: “We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil”

She said: “Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter – the attempted assassination of two people on British soil for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable.”

Addressing the Commons last week, Mrs May said the decision to point the finger at Moscow was also based on “Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations”.

On Saturday, counter-terrorism police renewed their appeal for sightings of Mr Skripal’s burgundy BMW 320D saloon car, registration HD09 WAO, in Salisbury on the morning of Sunday, March 4.

Snow and ice are causing further disruption to road, rail and air travel in parts of the UK.

A Met Office amber warning of a possible risk to life is in place in south-west England, south-east and mid-Wales and the West Midlands all day.

Police say driving conditions are poor, with no safe routes across the Pennines and snow ploughs dispatched to the M62.

Lincolnshire Police said up to 35 vehicles were stuck overnight in snow drifts on the A158 near Edlington.

Officers spent seven hours digging and towing out all of the stranded vehicles on the stretch of road between Baumber and Horncastle.

Meanwhile, Bristol airport has closed until 12:00 GMT due to the weather.

Other airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, have urged passengers to check flight information before travelling due to possible disruption.

Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and Great Northern Rail have all reported delays and cancellations. Customers are encouraged to check National Rail Enquiries before leaving home.

Among the disruption caused by snow and ice:

There are no trains between Bedwyn and Newbury until 13:00 GMT, or between Exeter and Barnstaple until 12:00 GMT

South Western Railway warned freezing temperatures were causing numerous points failures, including at Eastleigh and Aldershot

Some rail replacement buses around Manchester are unable to run

Many roads have been blocked by snow and stranded vehicles, including the A38 northbound between Birmingham and Burton, the A3 southbound at Thursley, and the A331 Blackwater Valley Relief road

The Anglo-Welsh Cup final is one of a number of sporting events postponed

The Met Office’s amber warning for parts of Wales and south-west England will remain in place until 21:00 GMT.

Parts of south-west England could are likely to see 5-10cm of snowfall with the possibility for 15-25cm of snow on higher ground, particularly in Dartmoor.

Yellow “be aware” warnings for snow and ice affect much of the England and Wales, central and south-west Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland until Sunday evening.

Temperatures in the Scottish Highlands could drop as low as -8C later in the day.

Richard Leonard, Highways England’s head of road safety, said while gritters would be treating the roads “it is still important to drive to the conditions when snow is forecast”.

Cheshire Police warned there is currently “no route to safely cross the Pennines into Cheshire”. The A54, A537 Cat and Fiddle and B5470 are all closed or blocked by snow.

Bus company First South Yorkshire has been forced to cancel a number of services across the region due to conditions on the roads. Sheffield, in particular, is badly affected.

Skip Twitter post by @Gatwick_Airport

Flights are arriving and departing from Gatwick as normal. We have had some snowfall overnight so we recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline and also allow extra time for your journey to the airport if needed.

— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) March 18, 2018

End of Twitter post by @Gatwick_Airport

More than 100 flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled on Saturday and the airport warned of the potential for more disruption on Sunday.

“We’ve worked with our airlines to consolidate Sunday’s flight schedule, moving passengers on to fewer flights,” a spokesman said.

Gatwick said passengers should check the status of their flights and also allow extra time for their journey to the airport.

Sunday’s City of Lincoln 10km run has been postponed after organisers deemed it “unsafe” due to poor weather. The Shrewsbury 10km run has also been called off, as have half marathons in Reading, Wigan and Wilmslow.

There will be no horse racing in Britain on Sunday as both Carlisle and Ffos Las were forced to abandon events due to the weather.

Football has also been affected with Derby’s Championship match against Cardiff being postponed.

The surrounding areas of Pride Park have been left in an unsafe condition following heavy overnight snowfall.

BBC Look North’s Sport Relief ‘Big 50 Sofa Challenge’ has been postponed due to heavy snow in West Yorkshire.

Presenters of the regional TV news programme were due to push the red Look North sofa 10 miles from Bradford to Haworth, but organisers called it off due to “treacherous” conditions.

The wintry snap dubbed the “mini beast from the east” brought the heaviest snow showers on Saturday to north-east England and the North Midlands, as well as parts of southern England – including Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.

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Media captionNo paws in the snow?Image copyrightPAImage caption Roads across the UK have been blocked by stranded vehicles

A cold spell nicknamed “the Beast from the East” saw much of the UK and Europe blanketed in snow at the start the month.

Image copyrightMet OfficeImage caption Met Office weather warnings are in place for Sunday